Google Ventures led the charge on $14 million of series A-1 funding for Pelage Pharmaceuticals, a Westwood-based medical company championing a clinical trial for a drug designed to regenerate hair growth in people with hair loss.
This comes after an initial $16.8 million series A funding round also led by Google Ventures in 2023.
After completing its phase 1 clinical trial of PP405, a topical molecular treatment to reactivate hair follicles, Pelage reported that the drug “was well-tolerated and demonstrated statistically significant activation of hair follicle stem cells,” in a statement.
The trial is currently in phase 2a, where 60 men and women with androgenetic alopecia are being treated with PP405 for one month and Pelage will observe the effects over three months. This phase kicked off in late June, prior to the recent additional funding.
This latest financing – also supported by Santa Monica-based Main Street Advisors, Newport Beach-based Visionary Ventures and San Francisco-based YK BioVentures – will go toward more advanced stages of clinical studies where Pelage’s team will be treating patients for longer periods of time, said Pelage Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christina Weng.
“The A-1 extension financing is going to get us to an inflection point where we are able to think about pivotal studies and what’s next for PP405,” Weng said.
Pelage Chief Executive Dan Gil said Google Ventures has been “tremendously supportive” during its partnership with Pelage “with respect to anything from PR to compensation to terrific scientific minds, and certainly the fact that they have really outstanding resources,” Gil said.
Gil also spoke of the funding’s power to accelerate the process of clinical studies and to hopefully move Pelage closer to achieving approval for PP405.
“This funding allows us to do a number of things in parallel, as opposed to … in sequence,” he said.
“This is a real demonstration of the investor’s confidence in what we’re doing, that they’re allowing us to front load some activities that you might otherwise wait longer to start,” Gil added.
Weng and Gil said this round of funding should cover Pelage through all of next year as the company continues advancing through clinical stages.
